Kannada daily 'Mysooru Mithra', which celebrates 25th anniversary, first hit the news-stands on April 16, 1980. About its early days 'Mithra's' sister publication 'Star of Mysore' wrote:

Local newspapers those days could not afford teleprinters. They sourced news from radio, a skeleton news staff (a virtual one-man show') and rural news agents. Newspaper offices booked trunk calls to their news agents in villages and waited for hours to get through, even to places such as Hinkal and Yelwal. With K B Ganapathy as editor the 'Mithra' toiled for years to extend its reach to all taluk headquarters, including Chamarajanagar, which then was a taluk of Mysore district.